Page 235 of I Never Stopped Loving You

Her gaze is distant, but when her one eye finally focuses on me, it’s like she finally feels safe enough to let go. Her body slackens, and she falls against me as her eyes close.

“Damnit, Willow! Hey. Wake up. Come on,” I plead as I quickly pick her up and start back toward the house.

“I did it,” she whispers against my chest as I cradle her against my body.

“You did, Little Rabbit.”

“He deserved worse,” she mumbles as she laughs.

“I don’t know. I think you did a pretty good job of destroying him. He doesn’t even have a head anymore,” I joke.

Her eyes suddenly open as if she didn’t even realize the carnage she just unleashed upon that monster. Snuggs trots along next to us looking happy as can be, blood-soaked and all. Cujo’s got nothing on our giant, murderous cotton ball.

“He doesn’t?” she asks with a strange tone of hesitation.

“Let’s get you cleaned up first, then we can talk about what happened,” I tell her calmly as we get closer to the edge of the forest.

The moonlight is brighter through here with the trees being less dense. I can see the damage on her face better in this lighting, and my heart drops into my stomach. Her eye is badly swollen and bruised. He hurt her, and I wasn’t there. I should’ve never let her go alone.

I failed her…Again.

“Hey,” she whispers as she slides her palm along my jaw.

“Hmm?”

“Stop. It’s just a few bumps and bruises. I’m fine,” she says nonchalantly.

She stares up at me as I raise a brow giving her an annoyed look as she blatantly lies to me.

“Okay. Maybe a bit more than just a few. But I’m fine. I swear,” she tries to convince me, but I’m not hearing it.

When we get inside, I set her on the kitchen counter and pull out my phone. I immediately call Jeremy and put it on speaker.

“Wassup, Cuz? That fucker dead already?”

“Yep. Willow did it all on her own,” I answer with pride.

“I told you, she’s even more terrifying than you are,” he teases.

“Phones on speaker. And I’m not terrifying,” Willow huffs.

“Oh, you most certainly are terrifying, Little Rabbit. But it’s one of the hottest things about you,” I say as I place a gentle kiss against her blood-stained cheek.

“Anyways, moving on before y’all start fucking while I’m still on the phone…again.”

“Sorry about that, again,” Willow laughs.

“I hope I can forget it one of these days. So, why did you call?” Jeremy asks.

I glance over her one last time and realize she definitely needs to see a doctor. I don’t want to risk a brain bleed or a severe concussion.

“That connection of yours, does he have a real doctor?” I ask.

“Oh. Uhh…My connection does have a doctor on call. That’s who patched me up after that night. Why? Are you hurt, Willow?”

“I’m fine,” she snaps before closing her eyes and wincing from the pain she caused herself by shouting.

“She’s not fine. She needs to see a doctor, but I don’t want to risk going to a hospital.”